Missouri House passes bills dealing with handling of fetal tissue

The state House has passed bills that respond to the release last summer of videos alleging Planned Parenthood illegally sold fetal tissue after abortions. The legislation would ban the donation of fetal tissue from abortions, create a system to track fetal remains, and require those who handle such remains from abortions to adopt policies for those who blow the whistle about violations.

Democrats say those videos were discredited, investigations in Missouri and elsewhere found no evidence of such sales, and say the bills only threaten women’s health, but Representative Diane Franklin (R-Camdenton) said the resulting House investigation found there wasn’t enough control over fetal remains.

Of the bills, Franklin said “We feel that it is solid and that it will be a good, comprehensive mechanism for detecting if any trafficking [of fetal remains] may be happening in Missouri.”

Representative Andrew Koenig (R-Manchester) says the bills the House passed address loopholes in how fetal remains are handled after an abortion.

“The pathologist reports for a period of time were not sent to the Department [of Health], the Department did not look at those reports, we found out that the fetal tissue was being disposed of illegally in another state, so what we wanted to do is close those loopholes and provide more oversight to make sure that baby body parts are not being sold in this state.”